Efforts to widen data collection on California’s LGBTQ+ community advanced at the state Capitol Tuesday, with Assembly Bill 677 moving to its next Senate committee.

Senators on the Governmental Organization Committee voted 5 to 2 to advance AB 677, which requires state departmentswith a focus in employment or education to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity when collecting other demographic information.

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The law would also prohibit public middle schools and high schools from removing a question pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity on the California Healthy Kids Survey.

“If you can’t measure a problem, you can’t see it, you can’t solve it, you can’t figure out how to invest our scarce budgetary resources in addressing it,” the bill's author, Assembly member David Chiu, D-San Francisco, told the committee.

The California Healthy Kids survey is a questionnaire administered in public schools, typically every other year. It was developed by the California Department of Education in order to understand problems public education faces in the state.

The question regarding sexual orientation and gender identity is the only one that school districts are permitted to remove from the survey. The question asks:

Which of the following best describes you? (Mark all that apply) a) Heterosexual (straight)b) Gay or lesbian c) Bisexuald) Transgender e) Not suref) Decline to respond

The survey also asks students about their sexual activity, drug and alcohol use and if they were sexually assaulted.

Testifying in favor of the legislation at the hearing, Sacramento LGBT Community Center Director of Programs Emily Bender said LGBTQ+ youth are at a significantly higher risk for homelessness, family rejection and bullying.

“This is appalling in 2017,” Bender said, explaining that studies indicate that up to 40 percent of youth who experience homelessness identify as LGBTQ+.

She said gathering this data is the first step toward achieving equitable housing, employment and health care for California’s LGBTQ+ community.

However, others at the hearing raised concerns about the potential ramifications of the bill.

Nancy Chaires, speaking on behalf of the California School Board Association, said schools could respond to the law by opting out of the healthy kids survey because they don’t want to ask about students’ sexual and gender identities.

“It would be bad policy to disincentivize the collection of all of the other information collected by the Healthy Kids Survey,” she explained.

The survey also asks about childhood homelessness and domestic abuse.

“This could mean the loss of important data on the health and safety of our students,” Chaires said after the hearing.

Committee member Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, questioned the collection of private information and the age of the students taking the survey.

“At some point, there has to be a limit to the amount of government mandated personnel data collection in order to respect and protect individual rights,” he said. “When does this stop? We’re starting this at 11 years old? I think that down the road we’re going to have some ramifications here.”

Berryhill said while the sentiment of the bill is good, there are significant policy problems.

Replying to Berryhill’s question, Bender said after the hearing: “Thinking that 11 is too young? It’s not. Eleven-year-olds understand. By 11, you’re understanding what type of people you’re attracted to, who you have a crush on -- you’re beginning to understand who you are.”

Bender said the schools need to collect data on sexual and gender identity like they do on age and ethnicity.

“Hopefully, overtime schools will see that by gathering more data will only benefit them,” Bender said in response to the school association’s concerns. “If they opt out, they are truly just hurting themselves.”

This legislation is a part of a series of bills aimed at California’s LGBTQ+ community.